News

It’s a milestone year for Herriot Melhuish O'Neill Architects, formerly known as Herriot+Melhuish Architecture. The practice, established in 1997 by John Melhuish and Max Herriot, has just added long-term director Duval O’Neill to its name, rebranded and opened an Auckland studio. April also marks the company’s 20th birthday.

You know those experiences that can jolt you out of your everyday: seeing an incredible piece of art, eating an exceptional meal, having a challenging conversation. Unexpected or unintended, these experiences linger in our mind afterwards and ever so slightly alter us. Pete, a recent addition to our Wellington studio, had one of these jolts recently at the NZIA Conference as he listened to Architect Todd Saunders.

Wellington director John Melhuish recently visited the North West Coast of the US, soaking up the impressive built environments of San Francisco and Portland, as well as the historic town of Astoria. He shares just a few of his favourite SF structures…

Somewhat ironically considering our line of work, we at HMOA prefer to spend our time outdoors rather than in. We bike, we run, we swim, we surf, and when we holiday it’s generally in the outdoors, in remote places with no architecture to speak of.

Nic Sewell, NZIA Registered Architect, is based in our Christchurch studio. Father of Hunter (pictured with Nic below) and with another baby on the way, Nic also finds time to help out at RAD Bikes where he assists with ‘recycling a dunger’; getting people moving on their bikes. Nic has been working with Herriot, Melhuish, O’Neill since 2011, when he and wife Jess, also an architect, returned from overseas and a period of WWOOF-ing. They were eager to make a difference for post-quake Christchurch. Nic is certainly doing that, we asked him more…

A beach house unlike any other the almost-20 year old practice has designed before, to make your way onto this Peka Peka property you must first gently push your way past the native bush to get to the front door. The owners intentionally made it this way: you move, the native bush stays where it is.